The curtain falls on what has been an extraordinary European Tour season and one that the Tour committee can be proud of producing given the circumstances that hit them. They are rewarded with a fairly strong field too this week where 5 Major champions are in the field with current PGA Champion, Collin Morikawa teeing it up with his compatriot and regular Dubai and Europeantour supported Patrick Reed. Indeed, its Reed who leads the Race to Dubai and if he can produce a similar results to his last 4 visits here then he's most likely to be the coveted European Tour Race to Dubai Champion. Reed was only a lowly 28th last year but was 2nd in 2018, and 10th in both 2017 & 2015 on his two only other appearances. He quite rightly heads the betting ahead of Tyrell Hatton who has produced some superb golf over the last few months and will be hoping to finish the year off in style.
Tommy Fleetwood will try go one better than twelve months ago and Viktor Hovland arrives on the back of his 2nd PGA tour victory last week, whilst Sungjae Im gets an invite to make his debut. Its a competitive looking field as is there but throw in the likes of hat-trick seeking Bezuidenhout, Fitzpatrick, Wallace, Wiesberger, Pieters and Andy Sullivan, then its bound to be an interesting week ahead and gives us the viewer a nice send off for 2020.
There are a lot of players arriving with half decent form under their belts, well we expect that given its the usual TOP-60 who qualify for this but there's one player I'm keen to be onside with this week and that's Aaron Rai who took out the Scottish Open the week after almost winning at Galgorm Castle. He was 3rd at Fairmont St. Andrews later that same month before taking a well deserved break before reappearing last week in Dubai on the neighbouring Fire Course for a lowly 50th placing. Having shaken off the cobwebs and settled in for the week, the Englishman has found his comfort zone on the Europeantour and will surely make his intent known for the season ahead and go in search of climbing into the World's TOP-50. Course form though is a slight put-off, but we have a much improved player now and one that should find this course to his liking despite his apparent lack of distance off the tee. Very apt in bogey avoidance this year and his approach game has been very strong, if he can hole his share of putts and put in an improved performance on the greens he could go very well @ 66/1 with 7 places a begging.
Winner at Valderrama and the aforementioned Galgorm Castle this year, John Catlin has made huge inroads in his touring like and he sees himself here this week as a rank outsider. Winning the Irish Open as well as at Valderrama shows his potential and given that he's won plenty on the Asian Tour, the American won't be fazed this week. Afterall, he won on debut in Ballymena and won at Valderrama having missed the cut on his previous visit. Like Rai, he may lack off the tee but he's similar in that he is accurate and does hole more putts; at least this season anyway. He's a bit of value in my book @ 125/1 with the 7 places on offer
Lastly, I will keep Wil Besseling on the staking plan this week despite there being a risk of fatigue with the Dutchman. 8 TOP-20s from his 19 starts this year assures us he's had a good season having been promoted from the Challenge Tour. No other reason than to stick with him one last time for the season finale in the hope that he clicks @ 150/1 - 7 places.
I was tempted by Martin Kaymer this week but the 40s on offer seemed to hold the last 3 days which is a fair price. He's definitely one to watch in-play for me.
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